The grim tth of beg gay prison | Sadhbh Walshe | The Guardian

Contents:

• INSI A PRISON CELL FOR GAY FORMER GANG MEMBERS EL SALVADOR
• 3 GAY GANGS BEG “KNOWN”
• 'UNFIVABLE' DIRECTOR: 'IF THE GANG KNOWS YOU'RE GAY, THEY KILL YOU'
• ‘BARBARIC’ VLENCE AS GAY MAN BTALLY GANG-RAPED BY 3 MEN IN BRAZIL
• GAY AND A GANG: FILM TELLS STORY OF A JAILED HMAN EL SALVADOR
• GAYS THE GANG
• THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON
• GAY GANG
• KANDI BURSS’ NEW BRAVO SP-OFF HAS SOMETHG ‘PUMP RUL’ DON’T: GAY MEN
• TWO GAY MEN BTALLY ATTACKED BY GANG OF TEN HOMOPHOBIC TEENS
• TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ALIGHT AFTER THE ACTOR SAID PLAYG THE ROLE ‘BROKE HIM’
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT

INSI A PRISON CELL FOR GAY FORMER GANG MEMBERS EL SALVADOR

There are many stereotyp of and assumptns about street gangs, jt as there are many stereotyp and assumptns about gay men. In movi and televisn, some of the most regnizable gay characters have been portrayed as effemate or weak; they’re “fashnistas” or “gay bt iends. This obv ntradictn was one of the ma reasons I was drawn to the subject of gay gang members.

3 GAY GANGS BEG “KNOWN”

For my book “The Gang’s All Queer, ” I terviewed and spent time wh 48 gay or bisexual male gang members.

All were between the ag of 18 and 28; the majory were men of lor; and all lived or near Columb, Oh, which has been referred to as a “Midwtern gay mec. The experience, which took place over the urse of more than two years, allowed me to explore the tensns they felt between gang life and gay manhood.

Some of the gang members were gangs ma up of primarily gay, lbian or bisexual people. Others were the only gay man (or one of a few) an otherwise “straight” gang. Then there were what I ll “hybrid” gangs, which featured a mix of straight, gay, lbian and bisexual members, but wh straight people still the majory.

'UNFIVABLE' DIRECTOR: 'IF THE GANG KNOWS YOU'RE GAY, THEY KILL YOU'

Bee even the ia of a gay man beg a gang fli the face of nventnal thought, the gang members I spoke wh had to nstantly rist or subvert a range of stereotyp and expectatns.

I was openly gay – part of the “fay, ” as some of them put – and bee I was a stunt nductg rearch for a book, they were nfint that I stood a better chance of accurately reprentg them than any “straight novelist” or journalist. The gay men straight gangs I spoke wh knew precisely what was expected of them: be willg to fight wh rival gangs, monstrate toughns, date or have sex wh women and be fancially pennt.

Beg openly gay uld threaten their stat as well as their safety.

‘BARBARIC’ VLENCE AS GAY MAN BTALLY GANG-RAPED BY 3 MEN IN BRAZIL

Would the stat of the gang be promised, wh other gangs seeg them as “soft” for havg openly gay guys ?

So most stayed the closet, ntug to project heterosexualy, while discreetly meetg other gay men unrground gay scen or over the ter.

GAY AND A GANG: FILM TELLS STORY OF A JAILED HMAN EL SALVADOR

He hadn’t known the others were gay, and they didn’t know about him, eher. In “hybrid” gangs (those wh a sizable mory of gay, lbian or bisexual people) or all-gay gangs, the men I terviewed were held to many of the same standards. Men gay gangs were expected to be able to build a public reputatn as a gay man – what they lled beg “known.

GAYS THE GANG

” Beg “known” means you’re able to achieve many mascule ials – makg money, beg taken serly, gag stat, lookg good – but as an openly gay man. This meant they need to clash wh rival gay crews, so they valued toughns and fightg prows. Men gay gangs pecially exprsed genue and heartfelt nnectns to their fellow gang members.

Some would also patrol each other’s masculy, sultg other gay men who were flamboyant or feme. Cght between not wantg themselv or others to be prsured to act mascule all the time, but also not wantg to be read as visibly gay or weak (which uld ve challeng), ristance to beg seen as a “punk” or a phover was cril.

It all seemed to e om a sire to upend damagg cultural stereotyp of gay men as weak, of black men as “adbeats” and offenrs, and of gang members as vlent thugs.

THE GRIM TTH OF BEG GAY PRISON

One of the most pellg fdgs of my study was what happened when the gay gang members were risively lled “fag” or “faggot” by straight men bars, on b, schools or on the streets. But was important to them to be able to nstct an inty as a man who wasn’t gog to be msed wh – a man who also happened to be gay.

” They were also willg to fend others rid as “fags” public, even though this uld signal that they were gay themselv.

The ebacks challenge many of the assumptns ma about gay men – that they lack nerve, that they’re unwillg to physilly fight.

GAY GANG

It also munited a belief that was clearly nonnegotiable: a fundamental right to not be bothered simply for beg gay. The prison director showed him an isolatn cell, where ne former gang members—om each of the untry’s three ma anized crime groups, MS-13, and two factns of Barr 18—had been moved after g out as gay.

KANDI BURSS’ NEW BRAVO SP-OFF HAS SOMETHG ‘PUMP RUL’ DON’T: GAY MEN

“Bee the gangs, if there’s even the spicn that you’re gay, you pay for wh your life.

TWO GAY MEN BTALLY ATTACKED BY GANG OF TEN HOMOPHOBIC TEENS

” In this particular prison, San Francis Gotera, the east of the Central Amerin untry, gang culture was not the only source of vilent homophobia. The state had effectively ced ntrol of daily life si Gotera to church lears, who preach that homosexualy is a s as grave as vlence. 8—follows Geovany, a gay man who worked as a hman for Barr 18 and left the gang 2016.

TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ALIGHT AFTER THE ACTOR SAID PLAYG THE ROLE ‘BROKE HIM’

Livg the isolatn cell wh his partner and other gay mat, he grappl wh both his sexualy and his vlent past. Homosexualy remas taboo and vlence and discrimatn agast LGBTQ people is rife.

“How is possible for a untry to have s moral pass so broken that homosexualy and murr n feel the same? “But the tth is that they are already nmned: they’ve left the gang; they’ve lived wh former members of other gangs; and they’ve lived openly as gay people, ” she says.

The homosexual is the same, ” says a pastor one terview laid over a scene of him preachg to rapturo crowds the prison urtyard.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT

) Martez says the film is not an attempt to reem the subjects “jt bee they’re gay, jt bee they n show love or tenrns. If the only gay timacy I ever had was a group like this, or what you experienced, I uld fortably say I was pretty straight.

Whout some sort of bond gay sex, or any sex, n be pretty mechanil.

Some of them probably are a ltle bisexual, but I know two particular who seem 100% straight every jt enjoy the nvenience of gay sex sometim. When he download a gay app though, sudnly there were 20 dus a day throwg themselv at him and beggg him to pick them.